Agglutinative language 膠着語 / 교착어
kōchakugo / gyochageo · from English (from Latin agglutinare, to glue)
What is an agglutinative language?
An agglutinative language builds words by gluing clear, separable suffixes or prefixes onto a stem, each adding one meaning, as Japanese, Korean and Turkish do.
In agglutinative languages each affix tends to carry a single grammatical function, so long words can be taken apart like train carriages. Japanese and Korean stack suffixes for causative, passive, negation, tense and politeness. This differs from fusional languages, where one ending blends several meanings, and from isolating languages like Mandarin, which barely inflect.
Examples
食べさせられなかった tabe-sase-rare-nakat-ta (was not made to eat); 먹었습니다 meog-eoss-seumnida (ate, formal); Turkish evlerimizden ev-ler-imiz-den (from our houses)
Kungfucius says: Japanese verbs are Lego: snap on enough pieces and one word becomes a whole sentence of regret.